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Don’t Mind If I Do, I Think I’ll Take Two

4/3/10

When I woke up Saturday morning I was still amped from yesterday’s baseball experience.

Game two of the Rockies vs the Mariners was today at noon and Isotopes Park was opening two hours early.

One of the things you learn when you attend Rockies batting practices(or most teams for that matter), is that when the previous game was an evening game and the next game is an early one, it’s rare for the batting cages to be out on the field. Usually In this case the players take batting practice inside.

Every now and then the planets align and you get treated to a early BP following an evening game.

Being that I’m nobody special the planets didn’t align for me and the playing field was empty. That’s ok, that gave me the opportunity to take some pictures and work on snagg’n some autographs.

After I scoped out the park it seemed the place to be for getting autographs was leaning against the rails along the tunnel that leads into the innards of the stadium.

I had arrived early enough to secure a decent spot and I can tell you being tall and having long arms really helps in situations like this.

As I waited leaning on the railing I watched Brad Hawpe and Todd Helton walk in and out of the tunnel several times barely looking up and never stopping to sign. Moments later I stood there and witnessed Tulowitzki do the same thing.

Jason Giambi walked out of the tunnel.

Then he stopped and signed for one lucky kid. I refuse to pass judgement on what I witnessed because it’s early on in the season and as I’ve mentioned before the best time to get autographs is the early part of spring training.

Also I’ve seen those same guys stop and sign many times. Most of getting autographs is luck and it boils down to being a the right place on the right day at the right time.

But as always…. “I Calls ’em as I sees ’em”

The first player kind enough to stop and autograph a baseball for me was Tommy Everidge.

Tommy plays first base for the Mariners.

This is Orbit the Isotopes mascot…. A real gender bender here as nobody knows what the hell he/she/it is. Classy as always EY Jr stopped to sign for the fans.

I finally was able to get Aaron Cook to sign my Rockies magazine. It’s the one where he’s wearing an apron grilling.

Clint Barmes making the rounds.

I mentioned to Clint at Rockies Fest I’d be at the game in Albuquerque and when he saw me he looked up, smiled and said “Hey”.

Jeff Francis was being really cool and stayed and signed for everyone.

I think to myself…”Holy crap, now there are two Rockies home run balls sitting in there untouched”.

From that moment forward with the Rockies comfortably in the lead the game was over for me. I found myself staring at the batter’s eye thinking about those two baseballs. I was talking to my buddy Jack and mentioned the baseballs and the fact that they were just sitting there untouched.

I realized at that point that I couldn’t leave Isotopes stadium without those two home run baseballs in my possession.

Jack and I got up and walked over to the batter’s eye and started to scope it out from all angles. We decided there were three possible ways into that pot of gold.The first one would require me running along the front of the outfield in gravel with total exposure from the front.

The second would require me hopping a railing and dropping down into the batter’s eye. This one had good cover but a harder escape as a climb back up was involved.

The railing I would have to hop over and drop down from was to the right of Jack pictured here with hottie Marge Simpson.

The third possible way into the batter’s eye would be to come in from the left as the batter sees it. That required two fence hops in and two fence hops out and had a little more visibility than I was comfortable with.

Here’s another view of the batter’s eye and the good sized crowd sitting on the berm.

Isotopes park has amusment rides for kids, I thought that was a nice touch.

Oh man, you are a freaking ROX STAR!! I LOVE IT!! I saw both those balls hit, and I noticed how they both just laid there without rolling down the hill, and I even commented to Jim about it. And now I’m very proud to know the guy who picked them up! Haha! That is beyond awesome. :D

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